The ABC’s Director of Regional & Local services, Judith Whelan, has called on communities across the northwest to engage with the ABC and to celebrate the things that make the region unique.
Ms Whelan made the comments at the opening this morning of the ABC’s new Pilbara studios in The Pelago, on Sharpe Avenue in Karratha. The studios have relocated from their previous site in De Grey Place.
The event also marked the opening of the ABC’s new mini-bureau in Carnarvon, one of five new bureaux that have opened recently across the country as part of the ABC’s expansion of its regional services.
Ms Whelan said the new roles, along with a rural reporter role based in Port Hedland, made ABC Pilbara the largest regional reporting team in the state. “We now have the capacity to cover more local stories from the more remote parts of the region,” she said.
She welcomed the ABC’s two new Carnarvon-based reporters, Kate Ferguson and Bianca Carbone to the ABC Pilbara team as well as the new Karratha-based reporter, Cameron Carr. The Carnarvon bureau will cover the broader region including Shark Bay, Coral Bay, Exmouth and Gascoyne Junction.
ABC Pilbara’s new location provides excellent protection from cyclones, which means the bureau will be able to continue to broadcast from the studios, providing uninterrupted coverage during an emergency.
